Tuesday, 25 February 2014

My Indonesia trip trip reports:Silk Air's Boeing 737-800 KUL-SINSriwijaya - Your flyer partner Kuwait Airways A340-300 experienceGaruda's CRJ1000 experienceGaruda's Airbus A330-200 experienceIntroduction During my planning of itinerary, I listed down the airlines that I was interested to fly and Sriwijaya was one of them. I wished the 737-200 was still around, but they have all been retired from service. Currently the airline is operating B737-300,400,500 and 800. The only one that I was very keen to fly on was the 737-500, a type that was missing from my flight logbook. (Trip report coming up after this.)So listing down all the flights which included Garuda's A332, CRJ1000 and this flight for my domestic flight, the best route to fly with this carrier was Surabaya to Jakarta. I was supposed to fly with Trigana and Kal Star Aviation but because of the volcano eruption near Surabaya, my Trigana flight was cancelled but luckily, 'ticketindonesia.info' managed to change my flight to the 15th March. Thank you, Amira! I would highly recommend anyone to use ticketindonesia.info on any flights of smaller airlines that don't accept credit cards for payment. One such airline is Trigana, you have to use a travel agency to book your ticket. Why Trigana? Because its operating a sole 737-200! Fly this aircraft type before its gone!More about the Trigana's cancellation: The aircraft started its duty early in the morning from Pangkalanbun (PKN) to Surabaya but it got stuck at Surabaya due to volcano ashes on the aircraft making it impossible to take-off. The aircraft was stuck for a few days before normal service resumed. Since I was suppose to fly on Trigana to PKN early in the morning and return on Kal Star in the afternoon (1315 departure), I had to either cancel or change my Kal Star's ticket. Only these 2 airlines operate to PKN from Jakarta. Later on I received an email from Kal Star that my flight was changed to 2215 departure time, doesn't make sense to me anyway, so I decided to email and call them to cancel my ticket. However, I couldn't get my refund back as the phone operator couldn't understand much English and no one responded to my email. I won't fly the airline again after my next attempt, that's for sure.I would be flying on these 2 airlines on my next trip to Indonesia on the 15th March, trip reports will be done.

My original booking! I was disappointed not to have been able to fly with both airlines. I spent the day itself at the airport trying to find a way to get there with other airlines if I need to, but it was too expensive and wasn't worth sacrificing the time just to make for the return flight. So yeah, that day was spent spotting around the 3 terminals. Here are the photos.

Terminal 1 is the first terminal built in 1985, it has 3 sub-terminals; Terminal 1A, 1B and 1C.

Photos of Terminal 1's landside.

The good old A&W restaurant

The famous root-beer float and the curly fries. Can't remember what burger it is but it wasn't that impressive.

The number of taxi companies competing with one another is fierce! I would recommend Blue Bird company as they are more reliable and safer than the others. Always ask for taxi meter and not them asking you to pay a fee.

Notice the cancelled flights? Most of them were to Surabaya.

Lion Air and Citilink enjoy a good share in the domestic market.

Sometimes it can get a bit crowded!

This airline was on the verge of closing down at that time.

The viewing gallery: Not possible to take proper photos of the aircraft.

Inside the building

Terminal 3 (phrase 1) was opened in November 2011.

Not as crowded as the other 2 terminals, can't wait for the terminal to be fully opened. The new terminal 3 looks quite impressive. It may be small, but to get around was very easy as the signs were everywhere. Hard to get lost!

I miss the old livery, show how!

The land of Garuda!

The terminal 1 and 2 (sorry for no photos) may be old and crowded, but there are some positives about those terminals. Such as free-wifi - there is no need for you to sign-in to use it, just click on the 'free indo airport' wifi (something like that) and you are on it immediately. The speed connection was so-so but at least its good enough to do your 'tweeting', 'facebooking' or 'blogging'. There are quite a number of shops at the air side, so you can grab a coffee or some meal before your flight. Terminal 3 also has wifi and on the departure area, you have spotting and eating places so there should something for everyone.Take note: If you enter these Indonesia airports from outside the country, visitors from outside ASEAN countries have to pay a visa of US$25. For domestic and international flights, with the exception of Garuda, the rest of the airlines have to pay airport fees. Domestic flights: 40000 Rupiah International flights: 150000 Rupiah (Subject to changes)Do make sure you keep the immigration departure form with you all the time. If you lose it, you may face some difficulty going through immigration (departure)Hope you find this information useful!